Friday, June 06, 2008

Pierce-ing their psyche

With all the hue and cry out their in Laker Land about whether Paul Pierce over dramatized his knee pain in last night's Game One, there's one thing that's abundantly clear.

The Los Angeles team -- once known around these parts as the LA Fakers -- is seeing the Ghost of Red Auerbach everywhere. And he is still rattling them from beyond the grave.

It requires a conspiracy theory of the utmost magnitude to assume Pierce deliberately fell to the ground in pain, clutched his knee, agreed to be carried off the floor, placed in a wheelchair and then decided to return to cheers minutes later.

Massachusetts may be trying to give Hollywood a run for its money in the movie business, but no one would buy a script that hokey.

But these Angelenos, despite their protests, are acutely aware of the "shenanigans" Auerbach orchestrated in years past -- cold showers, sweltering locker rooms -- and can't shake the thought from the deepest recesses of their psyches.

"I don't know if the angels visited him at halftime or in that time-out period that he had or not, but he didn't even limp when he came back out on the floor," said [Lakers coach Phil] Jackson. "I don't know what was going on there (laughter). Was Oral Roberts back there in their locker room (laughter)?"

And this bodes well for the Celtics as they work to snag three more games and their 17th NBA title.

Pierce's playoff performance, including his Bird-like performance against Lebron James in Game 7 of the Cleveland series, has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has earned the right to wear the C -- his previous unhappiness with the team leader mantle notwithstanding. He has risen to the occasion more than once to carry the club in a moment of need.

The odds of him stage managing this episode are smaller than the chance of finding WMDs in Iraq today.

“It’s crazy to me," [Pierce] said. "I’ve never been carried off the court. It was sort of embarrassing, truthfully. I should have just laid their for 5 more minutes…If I ever get carried off the court again, I’m not coming back.”

Leave it to Silent Kendrick Perkins to offer the best explanation. Responding to questions about his own availability for Game 2 after ankle sprain, Perk replied: